RCWS is a weapon (weaponry) station or post that is mostly mounted on military vehicles or armored combat vehicles and is controlled from within the vehicle by means of a joystick, video display and operating console. The RCWS comprises all the functions which enable it to acquire targets, aim the weapon and fire at a target with high accuracy. The gunner operates while he is within the vehicle and is protected by the vehicle's armor.
A typical weapon that is mounted in an RCWS is a machine gun (for example—Medium machine gun M-240g or an FN MAG58), that is fed by concatenated munitions (“belted”) in the sense of a belt or of a metallic link chain and includes an ejection port through which the empty cartridges (bullet casings or cartridge cases) are ejected in the course of the firing progress.
In all the machine guns that we cited above, use was made of the pressure that was generated by initiating the bullets cartridges for reloading and re-cocking the machine gun (the well known principle of Maxim's gun). The machine guns can include various mechanisms for restraining the created force—recoil systems, blowback system and gas mechanisms. What is common to all of them is the development of a cyclic linear movement of a component of the machine gun forward and backward along the firing axis, as long as firing occurs (initiated or uncontrollable) from the machine gun). In a machine gun with a recoil system the moving component is the breech bolt, in a machine gun with a blowback system the moving component is the sliding block, and in a machine gun with a gas mechanism the moving component is the ‘bolt’. Herein after all the moving components cited above will be dubbed ‘breech block’. Posting a block (jam) and generating a mechanical obstruction in the path of the breech block movement prevents the possibility of firing from the machine gun, and in case of existence of firing—causes an immediate stoppage of the firing from the machine gun. An additional characteristic is the fact that a leading front edge of the breech block is exposed during its cyclic movement step over the ejection port of the cartridge cases.
Machine guns of the discussed type might suffer from a phenomenon of occurrence of continued runaway fire (spontaneous firing) also after releasing the machine gun's trigger (a phenomenon known also by its nicknames “unruly weapon” (also: “going wild weapon”).
From the instant of mounting machine guns of the type discussed in the RCWS then the firing action (pressing the trigger) is executed by remote activation of a means that in fact imitates the operation done manually (pressing the trigger by the operator's hand/finger). For example—remote actuation by issuing an electrically command on an electro-mechanical means of—for example, the solenoids type. Under those circumstances, a scenario of continued spontaneous firing might lead to very serious results because of the far away location of the operating soldier (for example—inside within the armored vehicle on top of which the RCWS is mounted).
Not only the above, but also the following—exchanging the fighter's pressing finger—of a soldier that has self judgment and discretion, by an electro-mechanical actuator that exists as said at the contact point—namely at the pressing and releasing point of the trigger of the machine gun installed in the RCWS, also naturally adds an assembly that is susceptible for a technical failure, to the control chain over the machine gun's operation (an electro-mechanical actuator).
Thus, for machine guns that are remotely operated from the RCWS proper, there is required an apparatus, one or more, for early prevention and stoppage of not-intended (unwanted) firing, namely stoppage of runaway fire. An apparatus that would be also remotely operable in and of itself.
A publication of patent application IL 176038 by the applicant of this present (current) patent application, describes an electrically actuated apparatus for preventing unintentional firing. There, the subject presented is an electro-mechanical apparatus for remote operation of an integral safety catch of a machine gun. Naturally it is not talked there about an apparatus that prevents or stops runaway fire even after releasing the trigger of the machine gun.
A publication of patent application US 2011/0296978 by the applicant of this current patent application, describes a firing mechanism security apparatus for remotely controlled automatic machine guns. The subject discussed there is an apparatus such as that when an indication from two sensors, that point the existence of firing taking place without any given command to press the trigger, executes a mechanical intervention by posting an obstruction on the cartridges chain (for stopping the feeding of the machine gun), or alternatively—in a way of posting an obstruction to ejecting the empty cartridges from the ejection port (and hence generating a jam as a result). In addition, the publication describes also an option of automatic shifting of the faulty (out of order) machine gun and training (directing) it unto a safer elevation angle.
It has been found that there exists a need to add an apparatus that will prevent unintentional firing in advance and not only lead to stoppage of such unintentional firing from the instance of receiving the indications as said, about the fact that such firing actually exists.
This and more, as a backup and as an addition to the apparatus described there (in US 2011/0296978) or as an substitute to it, there exists a need that the stoppage of the firing would not be dependent on obstructing the path of the cartridges chain toward the machine gun (as indeed the cartridges belt might be torn in a manner that part of it would continue to feed the machine gun as it is pulled by it), or requires waiting to the actual formation of a stoppage (in the time interval that passes between obstructing the ejection port until the jam actually occurs).
In addition, from the instant of activating the apparatus of the type described there (in US 2011/0296978), then restoring the machine gun to normal operation condition, enforces a relatively long exposure of a soldier that is required to exit—for example, from the safety of the relative protection of the space of the armored vehicle (on which the RCWS is mounted) for installing anew the cartridges belt or clearing the jam that was made, a relatively long time consuming task, hence dangerous.
Thus, at the time that preceded the invention, the subject matter of this current patent application, a need was recognized for—at least, an additional apparatus, reliable and low priced, both for preventing of runaway fire as well as for stoppage of runaway fire at its nascent beginning as it is occurring at a machine gun that is remotely operated while mounted on an RCWS and that from the instant of its actuating would quickly and efficiently stop the firing from the machine gun, and in a manner that would enable proper renewed operation of the machine gun while not requiring extended exposure of the soldier.